If it's too good to be true ....

Thursday

Apr 10, 2008 at 5:00 AM

By Janice Harvey

The name should&#39;ve been a dead give-away: Dr. James Cheetam.

I make it a rule to never do business with anybody whose name has been used in a Three Stooges short &mdash; that means I&#39;d stay away from the firm of I. Fleecem & Sons if seeking legal advice. I thought everybody knew that rule. Fat chance.

The little house on Arcadia Street seemed like the perfect fit for Chris and his buddy Mike. While surfing Craigslist, they came upon what seemed like the deal of the century: a three-bedroom cottage with a neat backyard and an astonishing monthly rental price tag of $800.

This bargain was being offered directly by the owner with no middle-man Realtor to eat up fees. Just the lessor and lessee, exchanging information via the Internet. The photos included on the site showed a well-maintained home minutes from downtown Worcester. And although the owner had recently relocated to Nigeria, he seemed so sincere. He was, after all, a doctor, and everybody knows that doctors are right up there with God when it comes to honesty.

So what if the good doctor wanted the security deposit sent via Western Union before he would release the keys? That apparently didn&#39;t raise any flags with the boys. The e-mails from Nigeria always ended with &quot;God bless you and your family,&quot; and everybody knows that flim-flam artists don&#39;t even believe in God, right?

So they rode over to the house, peeked in the windows, walked around the yard and decided it was home sweet home. They went to the nearest Western Union window and wired 800 American dollars to the funny-sounding address. Happy, they decided to take a ride past the little house on Arcadia Street simply to bask in the glow of their great good luck. The car in the driveway was a bit of a puzzle, as was the light burning inside, but the sign on the door really made them wonder. It read: THIS HOUSE IS NOT FOR RENT!

&quot;I thought I was going to throw up right then and there,&quot; says Chris. &quot;That&#39;s when a lady came to the door in tears.&quot;

The boys weren&#39;t the first ones to come knocking. In fact, several other potential suckers &mdash; I mean, tenants &mdash; had already fallen for what turns out to be a pretty successful scam. The house had been placed on Craigslist by its rightful owners as available rental property some time ago. After a short while, they removed it from the site, but not before all of its information was scammed by Dr. Cheetam & Co.

This wasn&#39;t good news. Eight hundred bucks is nothing to sneeze at. Luckily, Chris had acted hastily while filling out the Western Union paperwork, and neglected to send along the secret code needed by whoever would pick up the loot in Nigeria. This bought the boys enough time to report the fraud to Western Union and get their cash back &mdash; including the $18.50 wiring fee.

Chris&#39;s cell phone rang awhile later. It was Dr. Cheetam.

&quot;Chris, my friend,&quot; he began, &quot;You did not include the code needed for me to collect the deposit.&quot;

The rest of the conversation is unprintable, but I can report that it wrapped up with a &quot;click&quot; on the Nigerian end. However, the story doesn&#39;t end there. The next morning, while watching Fox News, Chris was astonished to recognize the little house on Arcadia Street. The man and woman standing before the television camera were explaining how their home has been used as bait.

&quot;Just this afternoon,&quot; said the husband, &quot;Two guys came by, thinking they were going to rent it. I told &#39;em to get lost.&quot;